General Parts Open House

More than an Open House, a Lesson in Service!

When attending a General Parts open house you can expect brats and other delicious cuisines. The brats will be cooked in beer, and that beer will be Miller High Life. Also, the same guy will be cooking the food at every event.

And just who is this regular chef/Miller High Life aficionado who’s shaped our company tradition? He’s none other than our president Bruce Hodge.

That’s right; our very own president has attended nearly every open house in the last six years. He has cooked his famous brats at each of them. While Bruce does love to cook, this tradition has roots with more significance than culinary hobbies. Bruce and General Parts “get” foodservice. Under Bruce’s leadership, we are reminded what the true value of our service is. Simply put, we help our customers serve their customers. What better way to prove that than with a hallmark meal? As you might guess, Bruce’s grill mastery inspired our marketing slogan, “serving those who feed the nation.”

As with any great tradition, our entire company embraces this spirit. In Indianapolis, Bruce recently shared his cooking duties with the VP of Operation, Gary Schermann, and Regional Manager Ed Eisen. We were lucky to capture the attached photo, which was dutifully shared on social media.

Gary’s wife was quick to comment that she is looking forward to seeing him wear that apron at home!

You can see we have a lot of fun and a lot of passion for what we do. The next time you receive an Open House invite, eat the brats, enjoy the party, and meet the team that’s rooting for you.

About General Parts Group

General Parts Group is a provider of Commercial Kitchen Equipment Repair Services. Founded in 1939, the company has grown to be a distributor of O.E.M. parts and provides service for over 60,000 customers and 400 manufacturers of commercial foodservice equipment. Corporate headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and with major branch operations strategically located in Arizona(3), Colorado, Florida, Idaho(2), Illinois, Indiana(2), Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri(2), Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma(2), Oregon(2), Tennessee, Texas(2) and Wisconsin(2), we are ideally positioned to provide Quality Service for over one third of the United States. We are viewed as the market leader in most of the markets we serve and in terms of overall sales, General Parts Group ranks in the top five of independent service companies nationally.